Left with little option but to bow to dissident’s demands to save his chair, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Saturday shed tears publicly but the rebels stood firm on his removal.
In a rare spectacle in Indian politics, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) first chief minister in south India did not try to conceal his helplessness as he told a TV channel in New Delhi that under pressure from the dissidents, he had let down people who trusted him.
The trusted people include senior Indian Administrative Service officer V.P. Baligar, who was his principal secretary and whose removal the dissidents were demanding. Baligar has been shunted out as secretary in the Industries and Commerce Department. Yeddyurappa has also agreed to drop his confidante and lone woman minister in the cabinet, Shobha Karnadlaje who holds the rural development and panchayat raj portfolio.
Dissidents have been seeking her removal accusing her of interference in the functioning of other ministries and behaving like a second chief minister. She has consistently denied the charges.
“God will not forgive me for this,” Yeddyurappa, who rose in the BJP ranks after joining it from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), said. While Karandlaje has said she is ready to quit if it saved the Yeddyurappa ministry, her supporters Saturday threatened suicide if she is dropped to please the dissidents.